DOUGLAS WICK and his Columbia Pictures-based Red Wagon Productions have produced four major motion pictures recently. "Stuart Little," Columbia's big family holiday release, was produced by Wick and directed by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King"). Based on the classic book by E. B. White, it was adapted by M. Night Shyamalan (who wrote and directed "The Sixth Sense") and Greg Brooker. The film stars Academy Award® winner Geena Davis, child star Jonathan Lipnicki ("Jerry Maguire"), and introduces a state-of-the-art, computer-generated mouse that was uniquely created for this movie by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. The picture has already grossed $226 million worldwide and is still climbing.
The critically acclaimed "Girl, Interrupted," also a Wick production and Columbia holiday release, was directed by James Mangold. The film, based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Susanna Kaysen, stars two of the most touted young actresses working today, Academy Award® nominee Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. Thanks to her breakthrough performance in "Girl, Interrupted," Jolie won both her first Academy Award® and her third Golden Globe. The film's ensemble cast also includes Academy Award® winners Vanessa Redgrave and Whoopi Goldberg.
Wick also produced this summer's epic hit "Gladiator," which was directed by Academy Award® nominee Ridley Scott and stars Academy Award® nominee Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Set in the time of Marcus Aurelius, this lavish production constructed an almost full-scale replica of the Coliseum on the island of Malta. The film, which boasts a cast of thousands and stunning special effects that duplicate the grandeur of second century Rome, has been heralded as bringing the period epic back in to popularity. It opened to glowing reviews and is currently breaking box office records around the world.
Next up for the versatile Wick will be the international espionage thriller "Spy Game," which will pair movie icons Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Also prominent on Wick's upcoming schedule are "Stuart Little 2," which will reunite the successful cast from the original box office hit, and Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated "Memoirs of a Geisha," which has been on The New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists for well over 100 weeks.
Wick's Red Wagon Productions is a story-based company whose collaboration with a remarkable ensemble of writers has developed screenplays that have attracted some of the most accomplished filmmakers in the world.
Wick has produced two movies by multi-time Academy Award-winning director Mike Nichols. The most recent was "Wolf," starting Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. Wick's first producing effort, which Nichols also directed, was "Working Girl," starting Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. The film garnered six Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture and Best Song (which Carty Simon won for her single "Let the River Run"). It also won five Golden Globes, including Best Picture for Wick.
After graduating cure laude from Yale University, Wick began his career as a coffee boy for filmmaker Alan Pakula, for whom he also became associate producer on "Starting Over." Wick has also produced two other movies for Columbia, including "Hush," starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange, and the teenage sensation "The Craft," starring Neve Campbell and Robin Tunney.
